Letter at Length

Thursday

Dec 20, 2012 at 2:00 AM

Child abuse suit is not frivolous

Child abuse suit is not frivolous

In response to the letter titled "No good can come from abuse lawsuit": Generally speaking, the average Joe has no idea how the legal system works. Most of us don't know that if the district attorney's office doesn't proceed to prosecution, that does not equate to findings of "innocent" or "cleared" for the accused. It simply means the DA's office decided not to go forward for one of myriad reasons, including perhaps those politically based that have nothing whatsoever to do with the accused, the victims or even the crime. Also, generally speaking, most of us don't know that when the newspaper publishes information about "investigations", there may not have been even one formal investigation. There it is folks, your legal system.

That said, please know that I am confident that my husband would never take a case to lawsuit frivolously. He is an attorney who has been advocating for the rights of children since 1985, heart and soul. If he has decided to take a case to court, it is because he believes in it, based solely on the information he has established. It is not as if people simply walk in the office door and ask to file a lawsuit and papers are whipped out and signed; it is a carefully thought-out process when it comes to sex abuse cases and children.

Contrary to Ms. Wand's allegation, there is nothing smug about investigating and representing abused children. No one is a winner. But I will not stand by and not answer her allegation that my husband has entered into any suit simply for the money, or for anything other than what he believes is the truth — whether or not anyone else agrees it is the truth. The notion that he would take a case to lawsuit for any reason other than what he believes is right and just is simply based on ignorance of the facts and how the system works. You have no idea how many unpaid hours he and his firm have dedicated to many, many cases in support of children they firmly believed were abused.

My husband is a father to our two daughters first and a lawyer second.